Anthony Mallia booted as top Spring Valley mayoral aide

Anthony Mallia led away in handcuffs, arrested at his home September 15, 2016Photo: John Meore/The Journal News

“Anthony Mallia has been booted as the mayor’s top aide after the Rockland Personnel Department rejected his job application based on his felony conviction and the lack of proper job documentation.

Despite the county’s ruling, Mayor Alan Simon is looking to re-hire Mallia as an independent contract employee. The proposed hiring — with no stated salary — is listed on the Board of Trustees’ tentative agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting.

Mallia worked for the village during 2018 at $125,000 annually but the county Personnel Department never approved his application and was never officially told the mayor hired Mallia as his confidential assistant.

The Board of Trustees never voted on hiring Mallia, whose spouse Randi also works for Simon, as his hiring was considered a mayoral appointment.

Simon hired Mallia in January 2018 on the heels of Mallia’s August 2017 guilty plea as Ramapo building inspector to charges that involved undercharging contractors for permits and shortchanging taxpayers by $150,000. Mallia worked for Simon when Simon ran the town’s building and zoning department.

Quite a leadership team in Spring Valley: A mayor who was kicked off the bench for professional misconduct, and then disbarred as an attorney, and his top aide, a convicted felon–both bad actors during their terms as the Head of the Building and Zoning Dept. in Ramapo.

Mallia’s hiring by Spring Valley went unnoticed when the village didn’t submit proper payroll records listing its employees until December, as required by civil service law. Even then the records didn’t meet the requirements, according to documentation from the Personnel Department obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law.

As a result, the Personnel Department was not aware that Mallia was being paid and working for the village in 2018, according to interviews and documents.

After the Personnel Department learned Mallia was on the payroll in December, the office investigated and rejected his application on Jan. 8, according to documents.

Simon fought the decision in emails with personnel officials in January but the village eventually gave in based on civil service law after discussions with Village Attorney Amy Mele and Assistant Village Attorney Jeffrey Millman. County Attorney Thomas Humbach also got involved.

In rejecting Mallia’s employment, the Personnel Department cited civil service sections that state: “Good moral character and habits and a satisfactory reputation shall be requirements for appointment to any position … Any applicant who is found to lack such requirements shall be disqualified for examination, certification and/or appointment as circumstances warrant.”

John Lyon, a spokesman for County Executive Ed Day, said the Personnel Department approves civil service job applicants before they are added to the municipal payroll and start work.

Lyon said neither Spring Valley nor Mallia provided the proper paperwork and “in this case the law and rules were very clear, and Mr. Mallia was not approved.

“He should not have been working there,” Lyon said of Simon’s decision to hire Mallia. “The county of Rockland will not allow any municipality to try an end run around civil service law and rules.

Simon hired Mallia in January 2018 a few months after Mallia resigned as Ramapo building inspector and zoning administrator as part of his August 2017 guilty plea to first-degree tampering with public records and official misconduct.

The Rockland County Probation Department first prohibited Mallia from getting a government job because his criminal conviction involved municipal work. Being involved in the village building department especially was frowned upon.

Simon became mayor in December 2018 after the state courts removed him as a judge in Spring Valley for professional misconduct, including threatening people with arrest and inappropriate language. He also was removed as a Ramapo justice.

In February, the state courts disbarred Simon, ending his 50-year tenure as an attorney.”

To read the complete Journal News coverage, click here, the links below are previous stories reporting on Mallia’s and Simon’s brushes with the law and other agencies.